Important Notes

With the Rockler Protection Plan, you'll get accidental damage coverage immediately upon purchase of your tool. Plus, we will extend the manufacturer's warranty for your choice of an additional 1 or 2 years. We'll take care of all parts and labor for any repairs, with no deductibles and no hassles. If your tool can not be repaired, we'll gladly replace it. Available in the US only. Click here to learn more.

I have one that broke at less than a year old. I need to finish a job and have the plunge and standard base. It is just faster to buy a new power head than the time it will take to get my (almost new) unit repaired...

I have one that broke at less than a year old. I need to finish a job and have the plunge and standard base. It is just faster to buy a new power head than the time it will take to get my (almost new) unit repaired...

When the router is fixed in a table the height of bit can be easily adjusted from above the plate. There is a special hex key for that operation. Unfortunately the groove on the shaft (that adjust lifting) is rather shallow and may be worn out by the spring ring.

BEST ANSWER:This is an excellent router and I purchased it because I needed a ½ inch collet for the particular bit I had purchased. But having several other router tables I redesigned one to fit this Bosch router.

BEST ANSWER:This is an excellent router and I purchased it because I needed a ½ inch collet for the particular bit I had purchased. But having several other router tables I redesigned one to fit this Bosch router.

Reviews

I purchased this about 1 month ago. I was amazed that it arrived in one piece - the packaging was so badly damaged and ripped.I removed the handles when installing it in the table. I like the adjust-from-the-top capability, easy bit changing, and that the clamp does not shift the height setting at all. The switch is clearly liable to get gummed up with dust, but a Bandaid over it has sealed it without altering the movement or feel.Power, speed are as expected and the soft start at least reduces the wear on my nerves!Overall an excellent tool except for the switch.I also looked at Porter-cable, Black & Decker and others before buying this.

I recieved my unit with a defective 1/4 collet but recieved a replacement the next day after I called the customer service dept. The rep. I talked to said it would be 7 days but it arrived the next day. Love this service.

This router and base, as seen in the picture, weighs 10 1/2 pounds. The sub-base (the black plate) is held on the metal base by four screws in the Bosch pattern. If you remove the sub-base, three additional tapped holes in the base are uncovered. The Rockler Universal Router Base will mount using these three holes without doing any drilling.

The tool is a work horse but it has a poorly sealed on-off switch that failed due to sawdust buildup inside of 6 months. Luckily I have a nearby Bosch repair center and they put in a new switch no charge with the caveat that it will probably happen again. They are on the 6th iteration of this switch with no solution in sight.

Having several ¼ shank routers I purchased this router for handling a ½ shank bit. I appreciated the variable speed and power for cutting a wide curve on drawer edgings to match other drawers in my kitchen. The router is reasonably prices for its quality.

I have had a Bosch 1617EVS for several years in a router table with no problems. I dropped it and broke the variable speed switch so I took advantage of the sale to purchase a replacement. I will be repairing the "veteran" and keeping it as a backup. Fine tool!

I have used a lot of routers in my profession. Bosch routers provide me with the precision and ease of use that I get only when I use a well machined tool. I have plans to replace all of my routers with Bosch within the next year.

I purchased this to replace a Bosch router ruined by a rain storm. It is even better than the old Bosch with quick adjust and fine adjust features I just love it. Mine is mounted on a table as most of the work I do is molding.

I purchased this for a use on a CnC Shark. Very powerful little router, and adjustable speed is a must for CnC routing. Holds bits very securely, never slips. After 200 plus hours of wood dust it is still running like new. If it ever dies, I'll buy another.

This Bosch router is powerful and easy to use. I like the fact you can use either 1/4" and 1/2" shank bits with it. I might even mount it in router table someday also. The only problem I found was that when I unpacked it, there is one of the clear shields missing, new out of the box. I am not sure who to contact about this. I wish they would send me a new one, so I can have all proper shields in place. Outside of that, this is a great router.

My 12 amp Porter Cable died in the middle of a project and the only thing I could find locally at the spur of the moment was this one. I took it home mounted in my table. I have to say that the above table adjustment was super smooth and was easily able to micro adjust. Turned it on and it runs fairly quite and smooth, the soft start is also nice. Here's where everything turned bad, I was using a 1/2&quot; shank raised panel cutter to create a concave in a piece of 3/4&quot; maple for some custom trim, using only the lower portion of the bit the back cutter was not engaged. The one I purchased has the electronic variable speed control (Models 1617EVS &amp; 1618EVS only). All this did was cause the router to slow down and speed up, slow down and speed up and sometimes completely stop. I was step cutting about 1/3 of the bit depth as well, I was not trying to cut the full depth all at once. It took forever to route the pieces, as I had about 30 ln.ft of material to shape. I did need to use a 3/8&quot; roundover bit as well and that performed wonderfully as there is minimal drag on a bit of that size. In summation, if you do not make cabinets you are going to be fine with this router when only using standard/common bits, but if you need a horse for cabinet making you be best to find another router of the 15 amp size. I took mine back and am ordering a 15 amp 3 1/4&quot; hp router.

This was a great router starting out. I hooked it up to my shark and it ran great for about a month. Maybe used 40 hours total. I was working on 3-D carvings so for finishing tool paths I ran this on a 3..I think was 13500 rpm...Then it just started sputtering. You could hear it increase/decrease speed. Intermittently. Then it just quit all together. Apparently no one in the area services Bosch routers and it would be more trouble than it's worth to have it repaired. Just need to find something more suitable that can hold up to the demands of my wood carvings.